Genetic engineering allows for isolation of a structural gene from one organism and expression of that gene in a different organism. Expression of a gene includes both transcription of the nucleic acid into mRNA and translation of the mRNA into protein. In order for the structural gene to be expressed in a new organism, the gene must be linked to a regulatory sequence in the proper location to signal transcription of the gene. The regulatory sequence generally includes a promoter sequence upstream from the structural gene. A promoter sequence is a DNA sequence which directs transcription of a structural gene. The nucleic acid sequence of the structural gene is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) and then translated into a sequence of amino acids characteristic of a specific polypeptide or protein. Typically, a promoter sequence is located in the 5' region of a gene, upstream from the transcriptional start site of the structural gene.
A promoter may be inducible or constitutive. In response to an inducing agent, the activity of an inducible promoter is increased, thereby increasing the rate of transcription of an operably linked coding sequence. In contrast, the rate of transcription of a gene under control of a constitutive promoter is not regulated. It is noted, however, that a constitutive promoter can be made an inducible promoter by the addition of an operator sequence. For example, the lac operator is added to the T7 bacteriophage promoter, changing it from a constitutive promoter to one induced by IPTG (Rosenberg, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,496).
Although not under the control of an inducing agent, some constitutive promoters provide higher levels of transcription than others. High activity promoters providing of high levels of gene transcription can have significant advantage in commercial production of a gene product.
In general, the ability of a promoter to direct transcription outside of its natural host varies. Moreover, the transcription rate of a particular promoter can also vary with the particular host in which the promoter is functioning. Therefore, new promoters capable of promoting high levels of transcription in a wide variety of host cells are needed.
The Chlorella viruses are a group of viruses which infect certain strains of unicellular, eukaryotic, Chlorella-like green algae. (Van Etten, 1995, Mol. Cells. 5:99-106; Van Etten, et al., 1991, Microbiol. Rev. 55:586-620). These viruses are among the largest and most complex viruses known, generally 150-190 nm diameter polyhedrons containing greater than 300 kb of double stranded DNA. The Chlorella virus genome has the potential to encode several hundred gene products.
Chlorella virus methyltransferase promoters have been isolated and shown to function in prokaryotic and eukaryotic host cell systems. These methyltransferase promoters function well in some bacterial and higher plant cells. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,328; and Mitra, et al., 1994, Plant Molec. Biol., 26: 85-893 ("Mitra").
The present invention provides novel promoter sequences isolated from Chlorella virus that can induce a high level of gene expression in prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, and over a wide range of temperatures, e.g., about 21.degree. C. to 37.degree. C.